Sentinel mission orbit (Credit: B612) NASA is currently spending only 5 million dollars a year looking for huge earth crossing asteroids. Thankfully so far none has been found, however very little effort has been done to locate many of the ...
First SOFIA Missions Completed
The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, successfully completed three planned scientific missions in phase one of the program, remaining airborne for ten hours on November 30, 2010 followed by additional overnight flights on the evenings of December 2nd ...
Suzaku Catches Retreat of a Black Hole’s Disk
A recently published study shed light over one of the most mysterious stellar phenomena, black holes. NASA’s Suzaku telescope revealed a dramatic change in one of the galaxy’s most active black holes – a change that might help scientists better ...
Hubble Finds Smallest Kuiper Belt Object Ever Seen
NASA announced that its Hubble Space Telescope has discovered the smallest object ever seen in visible light in the Kuiper Belt. It is a vast ring of icy debris, encircling the outer rim of the solar system just beyond Neptune, ...
How Will the Webb Telescope’s Sunshield Perform?
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is subject to very cold temperatures; in order to be able to capture the traces of infrared light generated by stars and galaxies billions of light years away, it is kept in cryogenic state. Therefore, ...
Bully Galaxy Rules the Neighborhood
NASA astronomers are using an image of a galaxy named ESO 306-17 to learn more about the formation of star groups, galaxies and celestial events. Since this galaxy is relatively separated from other observable objects, researchers are able to see ...
The Source of Cosmic Microwave Background
Researchers at Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and other institutions have used data from the Herschel Space Telescope to resolve a portion of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) into its constituent sources. Using images in the far infrared range ...
Herschel Delivers Its First Images
The European Space Agency (ESA) has launched the Herschel Telescope about a month ago; recently, it started delivering its first images. The pictures taken are of higher quality than most space images, allowing astronomers to improve their study of nearby ...
Herschel Space Observatory
The European Space Agency (ESA) and its partners (including NASA) are preparing to launch the Herschel Space Observatory into space. Formerly named the Far Infrared and Submillimetre Telescope (FIRST), Herschel will observe the far infrared and submillimeter wavelengths from stable ...
Giant Magellan Telescope Heads On
Nine research institutions on three continents have signed a founder’s agreement to construct and operate the Giant Magellan Telescope at Las Campanas Observatory in the Andes Mountains of Chile. The telescope will consist of seven co-mounted 8.4 meter mirror segments ...